9. Conclusion

Knowledge of gas transfer phenomena linked to the gas permeability of packaging is essential for the engineer concerned with the quality and safety of the food product placed on the market. Permeation is the passage of a gas or vapour through a selective barrier - a film, a bottle, etc. - known as a packaging system.

Today's polymeric packaging materials are few in number (PE, PP, PET, PS, PA, etc.), if we omit copolymers or adhesives for easy sealing or bonding of multilayer structures, sometimes pre-oriented, complexed into multilayers, metallized, etc. Paperboard is often coated with these same polymers to provide specific sealing or barrier functions. Determining how long a packaging system will protect a foodstuff (e.g. by maintaining the desired gaseous composition of the headspace) is the basic calculation to be made, as the shelf life of the same foodstuff...